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(LAS VEGAS, KXNT, ASSOCIATED PRESS)–Culinary Workers Local 226 says it could strike a series of downtown Las Vegas properties in the next two weeks if they do not have a contract by then.

The union membership overwhelmingly authorized a strike earlier this spring, but no date has been set.

But in an interview with KXNT, spokeswoman Geoconda Arguello-Kline said time is running out. After a series of new deals were hammered out at big Strip properties, the union has been working to complete agreements with nine downtown properties, where contracts expired June 1, 2013.

The nine casinos at risk of a strike are The D, Four Queens, Fremont, Main Street Station, El Cortez , Binion’s, Golden Gate, The Plaza, and Las Vegas Club.

“We have all this month of May. We’re trying to get a contract. Its not like anyone wants a strike, but we are preparing ourselves to move in that direction”, Arguello-Kline said. She tells KXNT the next two weeks will tell. The union indicates a strike could be announced as early as June 2nd

The union has an estimated 3,000 workers at the properties.

The announcement follows a union statement last week when Deutsche Bank announced it was selling the Cosmo;politan to the Blackstone Group for an estimated $1.7 billion. The Culinary Workers have been trying, to no avail, to get a contract at the Cosmo for its estimated 2,000 workers there. The union expressed hope that its workers would be retained by the new ownership and that ownership would embark on good-faith negotiations to work a contract at the Cosmo.